A method and a device are described in German Patent Application No. DE 10 2014 224 800 A1, in which a combustion of an internal combustion engine is controlled in the form of a knock control. For this purpose, a signal for the intensity of the combustion in the combustion chamber is produced by a structure-borne noise sensor and a knocking combustion is detected if this value exceeds a reference value in a specified manner. The reference value is produced from the measured values of preceding combustion processes by way of a moving average calculation. If a combustion was detected as exhibiting engine knock, then an ignition angle is retarded.